It's been far too long since an installment of the The Cocktail Hour (though the Chicago Sun Times New Group did pick up my piece on Gus! Click here to go read it...but come back!) I'm stacking your drinks here, barflies. Fasten your seat-belts!

First up: A shot of hot.

...hosted a kickoff event for Northeast media attending the very hot7th Annual Tales of the Cocktail event. Hendrick's Gin sponsored the lovely and cool Pimm's Pony cocktails (bury me with cucumber foam, 'kay?) and the site of the event was the hot restaurant/cocktail lounge called Tailor, you could say the event was Tailor-made to succeed. (Tailor's name pays homage to its old garment district locale on the LES - check out their v. cool website and meet the people behind it).

Just a few of the masterful libations seem to have done what no other combination of drugs (OTC and 'script) could do: knocked out the last vestiges of my flu! Gone and done. Good riddance. I am convinced this was a good omen that portends a bright future for this year's event. These Pimm's Ponies also magically healed the pulled neck (can you say coughing paroxysm? No joke.) At least I can provide some comic relief, eh? (Oh these magical ponies remind me of that McCain post...)

If I weren't already a fan of Ann Tuennerman, the Tales' founder and event organizer extraordinaire, this would have been sufficient. Then, you add wonderful cocktails from my favorite gin, Hendrick's. Add in The Modern Mixologist, Tony Abou-Ganim, a master sommelier Marisa D'Vari, and a host of fun folks and cocktail geeks, writers, food photographers... And I would say the trip from Boston was well worth it - even with the taxis which somehow ended up costing more than RT bus fare. But,I digress. On to our next drink.

Second Round: The Pink Lady

Click below to see the screen debut of the lovely Pink Lady, AKA Kirsten Amann. Kirsten is one of the founders of Boston LUPEC (Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails) and a server, a writer, and a publicist. What is it that she cannot do? I haven't found it yet.

Here is the link to the new How2Heroes site which hosts "how to" videos by experts including one of our favorite sustainable seafood advocates, JJ Gonson and now the Pink Lady making her signature eponymous cocktail: The Pink Lady. (I hope to someday find a tech genius to show me how to make Joomla play nice with video and slideshows...)

...And one more for the road, a little lagniappe

You may have heard of Gene Roddenbury's and his wife's ashes are now being shot into space. Fitting for the Star Trek creator. On my new favorite podcast, Dinner Party Download the cocktail of the moment is the Elk Cloner which is named for the virus that started the $40 billion dollar computer virus headache/industry. Those clever guys at DPD manage to make pierogies, the Elk Cloner and the Roddenbury news all flow together with Spock-like logic. If you haven't checked out the Dinner Party Download yet, do it. It's great.

Oh and by the way, the Elk Cloner contains Damiana which is thought to be an aphrodisiac. Why not give it a try for Valentine's Day?